3 Reactions to Jericho Operation--And Yes The Moon Is Full

True, statements such as these by UN officials, represenatatives for Palestinian terrorists, and American liberals don't require a full moon, but for onesidedness, absurdity, and being out of touch of reality--all on the same issue and on the same day--this is quite a collection.

Yahoo News:

"Israel's violent incursion — as well as the Palestinian actions carried out in response — risk destabilizing even further the already tense situation in the Middle East," Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, told the Security Council in an emergency meeting.

Jerusalem Post

Saadat's London lawyer, Kate Maynard, told the Post that "my fear is that my client will be killed" by the Israelis. The British government has a duty to protect" him, she argued, saying the presence of British monitors at the prison invokes the protections of British Human Rights laws. If Saadat is killed, Maynard told the Post she would seek to hold those responsible "criminally liable for murder" and seek to extradite them to Britain.

CNN interview with former US hostage:(via Vital Perspective)

DOUGLAS JOHNSON, FMR. HOSTAGE: Yes. Yes. Thank you. We were told earlier in day that there had been threats made due to the situation in Jericho, that Ahmed Saadat was in the prison and that there was a fight going on. The Americans and the British had basically walked out and left the prisoners for the Israelis...

Well, I was impressed. I mean, it was a scary situation at first. But you know, the Palestinians, you know, are hospitable. They don’t know how to be otherwise...But, you know, I really sympathize with the Palestinians. I mean, that’s why I’m here teaching. You know, if people in the United States and Great Britain could see the daily atrocities being committed by Israel...And the daily killings. I mean, the military comes into Jenin almost on a daily basis.

...I mean, they could have easily killed me, disposed of my body, and that would have been it. But it just — it was not in their nature to do that. [emphasis added]

Technorati Tag: Israel and Jericho and IDF and Zeevi and Saadat.

Israeli Consulate General: Today's Operation in Jericho

It will be interesting to compare the information of these men here with what the media comes out with tomorrow...

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Information on events in JERICHO

In light of today's events in Jericho, about which you can read by clicking on the links below, we would like to bring to your attention information on the six prisoners (five of whom were involved in the assassination of Minister Rehavam Ze'evi), whose imminent release by the P.A. served as the impetus for today's' IDF operation.

IDF , Haaretz , Jerusalem Post , YNET , MFA

Background Information on Senior Prisoners in Jericho

In January-February 2002, in the wake of the assassination of Minister Rehavam Ze’evi, the Palestinian Authority arrested five members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and placed them in custody at the Mukat’a in Ramallah. In May 2002, under the context of an international agreement, the five were transferred to the P.A. prison in Jericho, where they were imprisoned under American and British supervision. The five arrested in 2002 consist of two of the leaders of the PFLP: Ahmed Sa’adat, Director of the PFLP, and Ahed Ghoulmi, Commander of the ‘Legion of Abu Ali Mustafa’, the military wing of the PFLP in the West Bank; and the three members who were involved in the assassination of Rehavam Ze’evi, Majdi Rimawi, Basel al Amar, and Hamdi Qur’an. 2002 also saw the arrest of Fuad Shobaki, who was responsible for large scale weapons smuggling into the P.A., including the smuggling of the ‘Karin A’; Shobaki was imprisoned in Jericho together with the members of the PFLP under the terms of the same international agreement.

During the length of their incarceration in Jericho, Ahmed Sa’adat and Ahed Ghoulmi continued to conduct and direct the PFLP from within the prison walls. Their location in prison became a site of pilgrimage for members of the PFLP and others identifying with the two. These visits provided an opportunity to recruit individuals to the organization, carry out ideological indoctrination, and give out orders for activity in the field.


Ahmed Sa’adat Yousef A-Rasul

Served as Director of the PFLP during the assassination of Minister Ze’evi
Originally from Al Birah, born 1953. Sa’adat was arrested six times from 1976 until the end of 1993, and beginning 1994 became ‘wanted’ because of militant activity.
In December 1996, Sa’adat dispatched a terrorist cell made up of Ramallah-based PFLP members that fired from their moving car at another car containing an Israeli family, in the Ramallah area. The results of the attack were the deaths of a mother and son, with three more children injured.

Sa’adat served as the commander of the military wing of the PFLP until the death of PFLP Director Abu Ali Mustafa on August 27, 2001. At that point, Sa’adat became the Director.
In his position overseeing military operations and terrorist attacks, members of the PFLP carried out the following major terrorist attacks:

1. February 2001 – Placing a car bomb in the Meah She’arim neighborhood of Jerusalem, 10 Israelis injured.
2. April 2001 – Placing a car bomb in an industrial zone in Or Yehuda. 8 Israelis injured.
3. May 2001 – Placing a car bomb in central Jerusalem in the Russian Compound neighborhood. 5 Israelis injured.
4. June 2001 – Bomb attack in the industrial zone in Atarot.
5. July 2001 – Placing 2 car bombs in Yehud. 6 Israelis injured.
6. July 2001 – Placing a bomb inside a watermelon, on a bus headed for the Malha mall in Jerusalem.

After being selected as Director of the PFLP, Sa’adat continued to emphasize his and the PFLP’s commitment to continue carrying out terrorist attacks, without any regard or attention paid to agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. On October 17, 2001, the organization carried out the assassination of Minister Rehavam Ze’evi in the Hyatt Hotel in Jerusalem.

In the last elections of January 25, 2006, Sa’adat was elected a member of the Palestinian parliament, on the slate of the PFLP. Since the elections, Sa’adat and other top officials of the PFLP have been negotiating intensively with Hamas regarding joining the Hamas government. The disputes between Hamas and the PFLP are based in a different approach to the Palestinian ‘street’, but the two sides are of the same mind regarding their relations with the State of Israel and the continuation of the armed struggle.


Ahed Yousef Musa Ghoulmi

Chief Planner of the assassination of Minister Ze’evi
Born in 1968, originally from Ramallah, a veteran of the PFLP, who was before his arrest wanted because of his militant record, in which context he recruited and trained members to carry out terrorist attacks. Starting in October 2000, Ghoulmi served as a senior commander in the military wing of the PFLP, responsible for briefing and directing cells that carried out attacks in Ramallah, Shechem, and Jerusalem.

Since January 2001, Ghoulmi was directly responsible for a number of bombing attacks, including those in Yehud and Jerusalem, mentioned above.

Since the death of Abu Ali Mustafa, Ghoulmi has served as the head of the military branch of the PFLP, replacing Ahmed Sa’adat. He served as a chief planner in the assassination of Minister Rehavam Ze’evi, and after the assassination fled to Shechem, from where he took part in the planning of the suicide bombing of a pizzeria in the industrial zone of Karnei Shomron, in which a boy and girl were killed and 30 others injured.

Ghoulmi is also directly connected to a number of other terrorist attacks carried out by members of the PFLP, including:
1. October 1993 – the murder of two Israeli hikers in Wadi Kelt.
2. March 1993 – the murder of an Israeli in Jerusalem.


Majdi Hazin Yousef Rahima/Rimawi

Commander of the terrorist cell that assassinated Minister Ze’evi
Born 1965, originally from Ramallah, a senior member of the PFLP. During 2001 he worked alongside Ahed Ghoulmi, and was involved in sending a number of car bombs to Jerusalem and Yehud. Majdi sent those who carried out the attack in Yehud, and armed them with the bombs which they then placed in cars in Yehud. As was said, 6 Israelis were injured in the attack.
Majdi served as the direct commander who recruited, activated, and sent the cell that assassinated Minister Rehavam Ze’evi.


Hamdi Qur’an

One of the assassins of Minister Ze’evi
Born 1974, originally from Al Bireh/Ramallah, recruited to the PFLP at the beginning of October 2000 by Majdi Rimawi, who taught him to carry out terrorist attacks in Israel. In July 2001 he received bombs from Majdi, which he then placed in a parked car in Yehud, causing the injury of 6 civilians.

On October 17th 2001, at the order of Majdi Rimawi and Ahed Ghoulmi, he and Basel Al Amar departed for the Hyatt Hotel in Jerusalem, and set an ambush for Minister Ze’evi at the entrance to his hotel room. Qur’an was the one who pulled the trigger and shot the Minister three times.


Basel A-Rahman Ahmad Al Amar

Member of the cell that assassinated Minister Ze’evi
Born 1976, originally from Beit Rima, a member of the PFLP for several years. Amar acted as the guard and alert at the entrance to the stairwell of the hotel at the time when Qur’an shot Minister Ze’evi, as the minister entered his room.


Fuad hajdi Mahmud Shobaki

Involved in the attempted smuggling of weapons into the Palestinian Authority on the ship ‘Karin A’.

Born 1942, originally from the Gaza Strip. Until September 2001 held VIP identification since his formal position was as the one responsible for the financial matters of P.A. general security forces.

In the context of his position, he was directly responsible for and involved in the activation and funding of cells to carry out terrorist attacks, purchase weapons and ammunition – including weapons from different countries – and smuggling those into autonomous regions of the P.A. Among his other activities, he was involved in the attempted smuggling of weapons on the ‘Karin A’ ship. Shobaki was imprisoned in the Jericho prison along with the PFLP members, under the same agreement of international surveillance.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Jericho and IDF and Zeevi and Saadat.

Have A Freilichin Purim!

If you haven't yet enjoyed this, now is a good time.


THE WORLD FAM0US STORY OF PURIM

by Meish Goldish

The story of Purim is an international tale.

King Achashverosh was Finnish with his disobedient wife Vashti.
"You Congo now!" he ordered her. After she had Ghana way, the king's
messengers went Roman the land to find a new queen. And India end,
the beautiful Esther won the crown.

Meanwhile, Mordechai sat outside the palace, where the Chile Haman would
Czech up on him daily.

"I Haiti you because you refuse to bow to me!" Haman scolded Mordechai.
"USA very stubborn man. You Jews are such Bahamas! If you keep his up,
Denmark my words! I will have all your people killed! Just Kuwait and
see, you Turkey! "

Mordechai went into mourning and tore his clothes-a custom known as Korea.
He urged Esther to plead with the king. The Jews fasted for three
days and grew very Hungary. Esther approached the king and asked,
'Kenya Belize come to a banquet I've prepared for you and Haman?"
At the feast, she invited her guests to a second banquet to eat Samoa.

The king asked, "Esther, why Jamaica big meal like this? Just tell me what
you want. Unto half my United Kingdom will I give you." Esther replied,
"Spain full for me to say this, but Haman is Russian to kill my people."

Haman's loud Wales could be heard as he carried Honduran this scene.
"Oman!" Haman cried bitterly. "Iraq my brains in an effort to destroy
the Jews. But that sneaky Mordechai - Egypt me! "

Haman and his ten sons were hanged and went immediately to the
Netherlands. And to Sweden the deal, the Jews were allowed to Polish
off the rest of their foes as well. "You lost your enemies and Uganda
friend," the king smiled.

And that is why the Purim story Israeli a miracle. God decided to China
light on His chosen people.

So now, let's celebrate! Forget all your Syria's business and just
be happy! Serb up some wine and Taiwan on! Happy Purim!!!

Technorati Tag: Purim.

Fatah and Hamas: What Gets Lost in Translation

According to Yahoo, the US is standing firm on its decision to isolate Hamas:

Washington plans to curtail contacts with President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction and other parties if they join a Palestinian government led by the militant group Hamas, Western diplomatic sources said on Monday.

If only.

For instance, lets take some excerpts from the article and try to translate it to see what is really being said.

Fatah has so far said it has no intention of joining the new government, which the law states must be formed by the end of the month, unless Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, changes its political program. [emphasis added]

Translation: Don't rock the boat! Fatah wishes Hamas would just hush up about wanting to destroy Israel. After all, Fatah wants the exact same thing. Just take a look at their website, where according to the Fateh Constitution in Chapter I, its goals include:

Article (12) Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence.

Article (13) Establishing an independent democratic state with complete sovereignty on all Palestinian lands, and Jerusalem is its capital city, and protecting the citizens' legal and equal rights without any racial or religious discrimination.

Now if only Hamas wouldn't be so loud about it, the US and Europe would be demanding that Israel support the new Hamas government as well.

Let's try another one:

Diplomatic sources said U.S. restrictions on contacts and assistance to Hamas would apply to members of Fatah and other parties if they joined a government under the militant group.

Translation: the US will not penalize Fatah for associating with a terrorist organization unless they make it really, really, REALLY obvious.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is listed on the Current List of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (Only cached copy available. Also see this list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations hat tip: TT)

Wikipedia has a piece on the relationship between Al-Aqsa and Fatah and notes that:

o In 1993 the BBC revealed that payments to Al-Aksa came from the PA

o In June 2004 then Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei openly stated:

"We have clearly declared that the Aksa Martyrs Brigades are part of Fatah. We are committed to them and Fatah bears full responsibility for the group."

o In July 2004, Ahmed Qurei, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority stated:

"The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, military wing of the Fatah movement will not be dissolved and Fatah will never relinquish its military wing."

Has Fatah ever disavowed the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade? But as long as they don't make a big deal of it...

Here are some easy ones:

If Fatah joins as an organization, it would fall into the same category," said a diplomatic source involved in U.S. deliberations. "Of course, if Hamas and other government members accept the Quartet principles, that changes the situation."

Translation: Just say you accept the Roadmap and we can continue with business as usual.

Israel says that peace talks, stalled for almost a year by violence, cannot resume unless Abbas dismantles militant groups and that it will not negotiate with a government led by Hamas or any group bent on destroying the Jewish state.

Translation: Israel insists on Abbas following the Roadmap--or at least says it does.

For extra credit, can you translate this one?:

Bringing Fatah, which is committed to seeking a negotiated peace with Israel, into the new government could help Hamas avoid political turmoil at home and undercut U.S. and Israeli efforts to isolate the group internationally.[emphasis added]

Actually, that is a trick question. Don't confuse translation with a complete fabrication.


Technorati Tag: Israel and Fatah and Hamas and Terrorism and Abbas.

Have The Palestinians Cheated The US Out of Millions?

Back in 2002, in an article for the Wall Street Journal, Ben Wattenberg was already saying that the numbers being given for the Palestinian Arab presence and the famous Arab birth rate were exaggerated:

Truth is, fertility rates in Arab and Muslim countries have been falling rapidly in recent decades. Indeed, it would be remarkable were they not; it's been happening everywhere else.

...The U.N. issues data for what it calls the "Occupied Palestinian Territory." On average, Palestinian women are bearing 5.6 children, which is a very high rate, but down from an estimated eight in 1970 and seven in 1985.

Last week a findings were reported along similar lines, challenging the numbers that have heretofore been accepted at face value:

American Researchers Bennett Zimmerman, Roberta Seid, and Michael Wise Say Previous Population Figures for Arabs in West Bank and Gaza Are Highly Inflated While Jewish Births and Immigration Forecasts Are Underestimated

...The researchers who leading U.S. demographer Nick Eberstadt said "caught the demographic professionals asleep at the switch" by finding "the most portentous demographic discrepancy in the Middle East" are now shattering the population axioms that drive Israeli policy in their new study, Forecast for Israel and West Bank 2025.

Zimmerman's web site, PA Demographics, notes the reason for the demographic error in a press release that came out in January 10 of last year:

The assumption that Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza pose a demographic threat to Israel has to be radically revised. The 2004 Palestinian-Arab population was closer to 2.4 million than to the 3.8 million reported by Palestinian Authority (PA) officials. These findings should have a significant impact on politicians, policy makers and international aid agencies.

The million-and-a-half person gap occurred because the PA numbers are based on Palestine Bureau of Statistics (PBS) 1997 projections, not on actual population counts. The PBS used the PA’s official 1997 census as a base population and assumed the population would grow at 4 to 5% a year, one of the highest growth rates in the world. PA Ministry of Health birth data and actual border entry/exit data, confirm that the PBS expectations were not met in any year between 1997 and 2004. There were dramatically fewer births and lower fertility rates, and instead of immigration, the West Bank and Gaza experienced a steady net emigration. When the PBS incorrect assumptions are applied over many years, the error in population forecast compounds exponentially.

The press release lists the mistakes made in calculating the Palestinian Arab population--some resulting from error, while others the result of outright cooking of the numbers:

o Fewer births: PA Ministry of Health birth reports were substantially lower than the number predicted by the PBS.

o Lower Fertility Rates: Palestinian fertility rates declined from the mid-90’s through 2003, according to PA Ministry of Health, consistent with the trend occurring in other Middle Eastern Arab societies.

o Net Emigration: Instead of the large immigration originally projected by the PA, the Territories experienced a steady net emigration averaging 10,000 a year.

o Double Counting: 210,000 Jerusalem Arabs who are already counted in Israel’s population survey were included in the PA survey.

o Inclusion of non-residents: Palestinians with IDs living abroad for over one year were included in the PA Census & Projection.

o Internal migration: 150,000 PA Arabs who have legally relocated to Israel since 1993 are still counted by the PA..

o Retrospective Alterations of Recorded Birth data.

In the Washington Times of January 14th of last year, Joel Mobray wrote that corraboration of these Zimmerman's report came from information produced by the Palestinians themselves:

...The study already has at least one unlikely ally: the Palestine Central Elections Commission. According to the agency's own Oct. 14 press release, a million Palestinians had registered to vote, which represented two-thirds of adults. Of the 1.5 million eligible adults (not counting 110,000 eligible Jerusalem Arabs), the release stated that 200,000 were living abroad.

This PA-released figure meshes almost exactly with the study's final conclusion that the actual Palestinian population is approximately 2.4 million.

On the one hand, the falsified numbers are important to the issue of the Israel-Palestinian conflict and the political justification for continued Israeli Disengagement in response to a growing Palestinian Arab population. As IMRA has noted:

Looking back over the last ten years it can be noted that the "demographic issue" took prominence when the miserable failure of Oslo along with the growing effectiveness of Israeli security forces against the "intifada" stripped withdrawal advocates of the security justification for withdrawal.

However, the falsified demographic data is an issue of direct importance to the US taxpayer as well:

Dramatic new findings about the Palestinian population will be presented to the
Middle East Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee, which
is chaired by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, on March 8 by Bennett Zimmerman, Project
Leader of the American-Israeli Demographic Research Group (ADRG).

The name Ileana Ros-Lehtinen should be a familiar name. She is the Republican Congresswoman of Florida, who back in January proposed legislation, according to the NY Sun "to slash American funding to the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations; designate the Palestinian Authority as a "terrorist sanctuary," and close down some Palestinian Authority offices in America as part of a reduction of Palestinian-American diplomatic ties."

The reason that Zimmerman addressed the House International Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East is directly related to its investigation of the U.S. funding of the Palestinian Authority. According to World Net Daily, if in fact the Palestinians have inflated their numbers by nearly 50%, then

almost $3 billion in United States taxpayer funds may have been provided as aid to the Palestinians in part based on fraudulent data.

"American tax dollars and other international humanitarian aid have been based on inflated population numbers which have been accepted without question by governments and aid agencies. Our researchers pointed out that money has been spent to help Palestinians who were double-counted, never born or not present in the West Bank and Gaza," Bennet Zimmerman, head of the new study, titled "Arab Population in the West Bank and Gaza," told WND.

Interestingly, the only mention of the issue of US overfunding has apparently been made by Arutz Sheva, World Net Daily, PRNewswire, and Yahoo--and the Yahoo story uses the PRNews story, mentioning the connection in the headline but giving no other mention or detail in the body of the article.

It was reported that Zimmerman's findings were presented on March 8th. Today is the 13th. Still not a peep from the major media.

Technorati Tags: Israel and Palestinians and USA and PA.

Haveil Havalim #61 Is Up!

Jack's Shack is hosting Haveil Havalim this week.

Featured categories, chock full of a variety of posts, are:

o Israel

o Purim (and parodies)

o Miscellaneous

o Judaism

There's something for everyone.

Next week's host is Shiloh Musings. You can submit your post to her at shilohmuse at yahoo dot com

Listed at the Truth Laid Bare Ubercarnival.

Technorati Tags: Blog carnivals, haveil havalim, Israel, Judaism

Whither the JBlogosphere?

People blog for all sorts of reasons--and more power to them...and to us, since the same of course applies to the JBlogosphere as well. But for those of us who write about current events--on matters Jewish and Israeli--what is our goal?

Through the medium of blogging we expect to:

• share our feelings and frustrations
• share items in the news that may be missed
• critique news items and the people who appear in them
• share our opinions about events in Israel
• open discussion on any number of Jewish issues

But some of us in the US have another goal in blogging, an accomplishment that one occasionally finds in the Blogosphere in general, but not in the JBlogosphere: making the MSM take note and have an impact.

The general Blogosphere has some major victories under its belt:

• making Trent Lott's comments about Strom Thurmond an issue, leading to his resignation as House Speaker
• giving broad exposure to the Swift Boat ads and forcing the MSM to address them, a major blow to Kerry's Presidential campaign
• exposing the Killian documents as forged and forcing the MSM to take note, leading to Dan Rather's early retirement

This in addition to bringing issues of double-standards, hypocrisy, bias, and outright lies to the general public.

We in the JBlogosphere who like to draw attention to the double-standards, hypocrisy, bias, and outright lies found in international relations with and media coverage of Israel--can we ever hope for anything as impressive, or are we limited to preaching to the choir?

The main enemy is the media which sets the agenda and influences public opinion, and even the general Blogosphere does not win every battle against it. Case in point: the Air America scandal (see here and links at bottom of post) has been virtually ignored by the media, though if the issue was a Conservative radio network, one might expect there would be all kinds of coverage.

One could argue that even the successes of the blogosphere need to be taken in context:

• Trent Lott, as a Republican who was attacked by liberal bloggers as well, was an obvious target for the liberal media
• The Swift Boat ads and the Killian documents were issues directly bearing on a Presidential election. Though in both cases the media was reluctant to cover the issues, it was difficult to avoid once the Blogosphere's coverage reached critical mass.

These are exceptions to the general lock that the liberal bias has on the media.

Even with the growing recognition of the Blogosphere, besides the lack of attention to Air America, we still see all kinds of media bias in its coverage of Bush and Iraq as well as domestic issues. But even without being able to dictate what are the headlines that people will see in the press and on TV, the Blogosphere provides a strong alternative source of information for those who are looking for it.

However, regardless of what you think of the potential of the Blogosphere to grow into a force for the MSM to reckon with, and even if the Blogosphere will have growing influence and pressure on the media, it won't help the JBlogopshere.

Why?

First, because no matter how opposed the liberal media is to President Bush in general and US policy in Iraq in particular, when it comes to Israel--Bush and the media are now on the same page.

The media not only supports the Road Map, but after the required perfunctory declarations about Hamas, the media working its way towards supporting the need, if not the obligation, to deal with them.

Secondly, with everything else happening in the world and the pet issues each blogger has, how much attention is really being paid to Israel by the general Blogosphere?

How often does Instapundit cover Israel or has a post about Hamas and its election?

Little Green Footballs is a great exception, but it is still an exception.
Powerline also covers the situation in Israel from time to time--but how many of the big blogs do?

As things stand now:

• The media follows the liberal line in covering Israel.
• The general blogosphere does not cover Israel to the degree it covers other similar issues.
• The general blogosphere occasionally will link to a post in the JBlogosphere, but not often.

If we can barely appear on the Blogosphere radar, how can we expect to get the attention of the general public as a whole, the media, and eventually the elected officials and policy makers?

If Israel is a topic that is not covered by the big blogs in the general blogosphere, what reasonable goals can we set for ourselves, and how do we go about achieving them?

Technorati Tag: Israel and Jews</ a>.

Some Wednesday Night Early Morning Links

A Simple Jew writes about whether the final resting place of Mordechai and Esther might be in Israel.

The Elder of Ziyon writes about the unusual Goering legacy.

Elie's Expositions writes about how it's crunch time for Matzah lovers

Heichal HaNegina goes from Shabbos to Adar and finishes off with a couple of niggunim for Adar and Purim.

Israel Perspectives writes about the Jews of Silence and wonders what it will take to wake us up.

Judeopundit shows that he is quite the 'parody animal'

Life-of-Rubin finds a website with an odd name, but modesty prevents him for saying ourtright what kind of site it is.

Mirty's Place shares the experience--and recipe--of a milchig potato kugel

Soccer Dad writes about the passing of Rev. Abraham Lopes Cardozo and the effort to keep liturgical music alive.

There's just something about a picture of Abbas that invites sarcasm--
just ask Meryl Yourish and Soccer Dad and Abba Gav


WestBankBlog writes about a Haaretz poll that should bring the Israeli MSM down to earth.

Technorati Tag: Blogs and Israel and Judaism.

Jay Bennish: Anti-Bush...and Anti-Israel

Many have come out both supportive and critical of Jay Bennish and the lesson (considering everything he said, it was much more than just comments) to his geography class.

There is a transcript of the tape made of Bennish's comments written by Michelle Malkin and she has a link to comments from a former student on a talk show.
You can hear the audio of the class here.

Bennish does more than make comments critical of Bush and the US, he also makes comments about Israel:

So, why does Mr. Bush think that other countries that are democracies won't wanna be like us? Why does he think they'll just wanna be at peace with each other?! What makes him think that when the Palestinians get their own state that they won't wanna preemptively invade Israel to eliminate a potential threat to their security just like we supposedly did in Iraq?! Do you see the dangerous precedent that we have set by illegally invading another country and violating their sovereignty in the name of protecting us against a potential future--sorry--attack? [Unintelligible.]

An odd comparison--considering the Palestinian Arab attacks, bombings, and murders contrasted with Israel's apparently neverending concessions, the Disengagment, and release of murderers--with a country like Iraq that in the past has been aggressive towards fellow Moslem countries, attacking Kuwait and being in a long war with Iran.

Of course Iraq and the Palestinians do have one clear thing in common--the murder of their own people.

...We told--Condoleezza Rice said--that now that Hamas got elected to lead the Palestianians that they have to renounce their desire to eliminate Israel. And then Condoleezza Rice also went on to say that you can't be for peace and support armed struggle at the same time. You can't do that. Either you're for peace or war. But you can't be for both.

What is the problem with her saying this? That's the same thing we say. That is exactly the same thing this current administration says. We're gonna make the world safe by invading and killing and making war. So, if we can be for peace and for war, well, why can't the Palestinians be for peace and for war?!

"We're gonna make the world safe by invading and killing and making war"--I don't recall hearing this as the official US motto. It's not clear whether Bennish is referring to Afghanistan where Bin Laden was hiding or Iraq, which both the New York Post and Investors Business Daily report had, under Saddam Hussein, lied about their WMD program?

His student has a question too...

*Student Sean Allen, who is taping Bennish's rant, speaks up:*

Allen: Isn't there a difference of, of, having Hamas being like, we wanna attack Israelis because they're Israelis, and having us say we want to attack people who are known terrorists? Isn't there a difference between saying we're going to attack innocents and we're going to attack people who are not innocent?

1007

Bennish: I think that's a good point. But you have to remember who's doing the defining of a terrorist. And what is a terrorist?

Allen: Well, when people attack us on our own soil and are actually attempting to take American lives and want to take American lives, whereas, Israelies in this situation, aren't saying we want to blow up Palestine...

Bennish: How did Israel and the modern Israeli state even come into existence in the first place?

Allen: We gave it to them.

Neither the student, nor apparently Mr. Bennish, is aware of the continued Jewish presence in cities such as Safed and Jerusalem and the Jewish immigration into Palestine that started in the latter part of the 19th century.

Bennish: Sort of. Why? After the Israel-Zionist movement conducted what? Terrorist acts. They assassinated the British prime minster in Palestine. They blew up buildings. They stole military equipment. Assassinated hundreds of people. Car bombings, you name it. That's how the modern state of Israel was made. Was through violence and terrorism. Eventually we did allow them to have the land. Why? Not because we really care, but because we wanted a strategic ally. We saw a way to us to get a hook into the Middle East.

If we create a modern nation of Israel, then, and we make them dependent on us for military aid and financial aid, then we can control a part of the Middle East. We will have a country in the Middle East that will be indebted to us.

Dignan's 75 Year Plan blog notes, among numerous other errors and mis-statements of fact by Bennish:

Statement: They [Israel] assassinated the British prime minister in Palestine.

Fact: I assume he's talking about Lord Moyne, Minister Resident for the Middle East, who was assassinated in Cairo, Egypt in 1944.

Statement: Israeli terrorists used "Car bombings, you name it".

Fact: One truck bomb, actually (1/4/1948).

I would also be curious about where Bennish gets his "assassinations of hundreds of people" and who they were.

Of course there is the issue of distinguishing between the Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi. It was Ben Gurion who said at the outset of WWII, "We shall fight the war against Hitler as if there were no White Paper, and we shall fight the White Paper as if there were no war" and the Irgun that agreed to help the British by sending a group to Iraq to blow up their refineries in 1941. While the issue is not black and white, it was only Lehi that could be described as a "self described terrorist group." The murder of Lord Moyne resulted in The Hunting Season, where close to a thousand people were turned over to the British--which stands in sharp contrast to the failure of the PLA to keep its obligation to disarm Palestinian terrorists as required by the Road Map. By lumping the 3 groups together, Bennish glosses over an important issue and misleads his students.

Allen: But is it ok to say it's just to attack Israel? If it's ok to attack known terrorists, it's ok to attack Israel?

Bennish: If you were Palestinians, who are the real terrorists? The Israelis, who fire missiles that they purchased from the United States government into Palestinian neighborhoods and refugees and maybe kill a terrorist, but also kill innocent women and children. And when you shoot a missile into Pakistan to quote-unquote kill a known terrorist, and we just killed 75 people that have nothing to do with al Qaeda, as far as they're concerned, we're the terrorists. We've attacked them on their soil with the intention of killing their innocent people.

Besides the issue of Palestinian terrorists purposely hiding among civilians and the extent to which Israel has tried to minimize casualties in these cases, is the simple fact that Palestinian terrorists are purposely trying to kill civilians while Israel is not.

Bennish certainly did not make racist claims about Israel, and he saved comparisons with Hitler for his comments about Bush. To fully appreciate what Bennish's class was like, you should listen to the audio and form your own opinion.

I had a teacher in High School who also taught about US history and policy and discussed American Imperialism. However he used textbooks and homework to make his points--he did not use the classroom as a soapbox for comments that reveal an ignorance of the topics he is supposedly teaching to his class.

In that class, there was never an interchange like this from Bennish's class:

Bennish: Who is probably the single most violent nation on planet Earth?!
Student: We are.
Bennish: The United States of America! And we're a democracy. Quote-unquote.

The syllabus for his Accelerated World Geography course does not indicate which textbook he used or what readings would be assigned. The father of the student who taped the class said on a talk show that other students from past years will also come forward to describe what Mr. Bennish's class was like.

Some of Bennish's defenders claim that this is a free speech issue. There are, however, some questions to consider:

1. Was this a lesson or a rant.
2. Was the information he gave to the class actually factually correct
3. Was there an opportunity for rebuttal from the students
4. Was the teacher egged on by the student who taped him (The Lauer defense)

1. If this was all just a rant, then perhaps the worst that can be said is that Bennish lost control and a slap on the wrist may be sufficient.

2. If what he said was factually incorrect--and Dignan's blog goes to great length to point out and substantiate numerous factual errors made by Bennish--then the consequences that Bennish faces should be far more severe. This is more than just free speech--Bennish is a teacher who, unlike a letter to the editor, is expected to maintain a certain level of accuracy.

3. The opportunity for student rebuttal is a point that really does not carry much weight, seeing that we are dealing here with high school students, who generally are very likely to accept whatever a teacher says, as truth--and the more radical the better. It's not clear that Bennish has any better grasp of the facts than his students.

4. Considering that the student does not speak up on the tape until a little less than half way into Bennish's taped remarks, after Bennish's Bush/Hitler comparison, it makes no sense to say he was egged on (assuming the student's question can even be interpreted that way), unless there is some comment the student made previous to the taping. Of course, it also odd for a teacher to say provocative things to his students and then whine when they follow his example.

Why is it that people who try to be provocative get so upset when they are successful?

Crossposted at Israpundit

Technorati Tag: Israel and Bush and Bennish and Free Speech and Terrorism.

First, Denmark Cartoons--Now, a Czechoslovakian Documentary

First Denmark, now Czechoslovakia:

A Czech Television (ČTV) documentary is threatening to raise tensions within the country's Muslim population to a level not seen here during weeks of recent global unrest over the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Ambassadors to the Czech Republic from Arab nations and members of the Czech Muslim community say they are outraged by a documentary aired on ČTV last fall that used hidden camera footage of conversations in a Prague mosque and spliced it — they say unfairly — with images of terrorism.

The odd--or at this point, not so odd--thing is, the Moslem reaction was not immediate. Instead, reaction developed during a month to 2 month period after the documentary, according to the producer.

But the article may imply otherwise:

Members of the Muslim community first filed a complaint with the Czech Radio and Television Broadcasting Council (RRTV) that month, claiming the program is biased, provokes fear and manipulates footage to promote false stereotypes.

I didn't find any other articles about this--and one blog that thinks this is a repeat of the Denmark--but assuming the article has the basic facts down, this incident may be different.

According to the article, the documentary was aired on October 7 (the Denmark cartoons first appeared a week earlier on September 30)--so if the Muslim community filed a complaint on that month, their complaint was made at most 3 weeks later and not a month later--and possibly less than that.

To do the documentary, a reporter entered a mosque pretending to be interested in converting to Islam and asked questions "about Islam, Europe, terrorism and the role of women."

The results?

One Muslim in the documentary compares Islamic terrorists to Jan Palach, the Czech student who committed suicide by setting himself on fire in protest of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Another says Islamic law should be implemented in the Czech Republic, including the death penalty for adultery, Ovečka says.

"I have to say with 100 percent certainty that by using hidden camera I have learned things that I would never have learned otherwise," he says. "The result was alarming, and if not for the hidden camera, I would have never had any of this footage."

The criticism of the documentary centers on the editing:

o The documentary footage of the mosue is intercut with images of terrorist attacks

o Moslem critics claim that using a hidden camera gives a false impression of secretiveness and that anyone can film in a mosque, with permission.

The article does not mention any criticism of whether any Moslem groups felt that the film was edited to give 'provocative' responses to the reporters questions an disproportional weighting.

The station itself has faced criticism before:

o The EUMAP (European Union Monitoring and Advocacy Program) released a report on February 20 that Czech public television in general is "marred by excessive politicization."

o According to the EUMAP, this particular station has faced sanctions on several occasions in the past for biased reporting

o According to the EUMAP says that though the situation has improved since the protests against managerial changes at the station in 2001 and the arrival of new general director Jiří Janeček in July 2003, "the content on ČTV is still the station's attempt to compete with commercial stations," she says.

It may still be that the documentary is just another example of an intolerance for free speech by the Moslem community--but until there is more information to go by, there is nothing gained by a knee-jerk response that the Moslem community is crying wolf. There are a number of issues of free speech in the news--such as the Denmark cartoons and David Irvings sentence in Austria--and there is no reason to muddy the waters with what may be a case of the media going over the line.

Technorati Tag: Free Speech and Denmark Cartoons.